The plant is notorious for being poorly maintained, largely due to owner Charles Montgomery Burns' miserliness and safety inspector Homer Simpson's incompetence. A surprise inspection found over 342 violations with an estimated $56 million required to bring the plant up to code, money which Burns refused to spend. Notable safety violations that have been seen include luminous rats in the bowels of the building, pipes and drums leaking radioactive waste, the disposal of waste in a children's playground, plutonium used as a paperweight, cracked cooling towers (fixed in one episode using a piece of chewing gum), skeletons in the basement, dangerously high Geiger counter readings around the perimeter of the plant, flashing red alert signs being ignored by employees, the creation of a mutant subspecies of three-eyed fish and a horrific giant spider. The Emergency Exits are simply painted on.[1]

The core of which is a Fissionator 1952 Slow-Fission Reactor. The plant has come close to meltdowns multiple times but has always avoided catastrophe, often due to Homer's luck. According to Lenny and Carl, Homer showed up the day Mr. Burns opened the plant, although sources say that Homer applied for the nuclear technician job sometime after the plant was opened.

Security is also shown to be lax, as a ten-year-old spy from Albania disguised as a foreign exchange student named Adil took pictures and got information of the plant simply by asking Homer for a tour.[2]

Sector 7-G is the location of Homer Simpson's workstation, used to help prevent a meltdown in the reactor core. Homer works on a T-437 Safety Console[3] which displays many buttons and features, including a meter that shows the temperature of the core and a button that controls the emergency override circuit which must be pressed in the event of a meltdown. It also contained a self-destruct button for the plant. Emergency doors lock down Sector 7-G whenever a meltdown is imminent. The doors directly behind the Safety Console lead to the Heavy Water Piping Facility.[4]

Sector 7-G was once referred to by Mr Burns as a 'testicle-shrivelling torture chamber' and the people who work there have at various times been classed as 'organ banks', 'seat-moisteners' and 'fork and spoon operators'.

The plant has two Cooling Towers. They both appear the same color with the design of an atom with its nucleus and electrons pictured. Coffee mugs, pencil holders and other cylindrical based shapes can be seen around the plant in the style of the cooling towers.

Mr. Burns' Office is located at the top floor of the plant. His office contains multiple trap doors that drop unwanted visitors far from the office (at least one of which contained a pool filled with electric eels[5]) and suction tubes from the ceiling that can send people to an area in the Middle East which, according to Smithers, was there before Mr. Burns worked at the plant.[6] Mr Burns' desk hides several buttons that can trigger the traps in the room and also call security.[7] There is a small array of security screens on the wall, and the bookcases conceal an escape pod and a germ-proof vault. Mr. Burns' office also contains a stuffed mounted polar bear which conceals a secret access-way, or 'corpse hatch' which leads to the sewers. Mr. Burns used it to dump the body of Smithers' father after he died while preventing a core meltdown many years ago.[8] There is also a balcony behind a large window.

The Plant cafeteria is where the Nuclear Power Plant staff have their lunches. There is a rotating cake tray which is turned by a man pushing on a level on a giant wheel and axle a few meters under the Cafeteria.[9]

A break room where the staff spend their coffee breaks. The room is usually stocked with coffee and donuts. There is a bulletin board on the wall that has a poster showing how to perform the Heimlich Maneuver.[12]

It is revealed that the plant is going to eventually upgrade the number of cooling towers (and possibly reactors) from two to at least five, perhaps as a response to the future growth of Springfield or its energy demand.[13]

A decade in the future, Lenny and Carl have been promoted to the executive board, while Milhouse Van Houten has become a supervisor. The plant is operated mainly by robots but Homer still retains his familiar position at Sector 7G.[14]Smithers jumps into the cooling towers and also dies, age 50.[15]

It is also known that it will have many lawsuits, as written in the billboard at the entrance ("Still operating, despite lawsuits").

In The Simpsons: Hit & Run the power plant is connected to Burns' manor and the Stonecutters' Tunnel. There is a car park by the main entrance with a reactor with a 'Vent' button on it. Pressing the button causes radioactive emissions, even though the button says 'Do Not Press!'. The inside of the plant can be driven/walked through. Near the entrance are a number of platforms that can be climbed on foot. Homer's workstation is also near the entrance and pulling a lever within the workstation can cause what appears to be a meltdown. The main core has pipes leaking radioactive waste.

In the final level of the game the radioactive waste plays a major role as it is the only thing capable of defeating Kang and Kodos. Barrels of waste must be picked up from the plant and taken to the schoolyard where their spaceship is located.

In "Lego Dimensions", the power plant is one of the main areas for the Springfield part of the game's storyline. Lord Business (from "The Lego Movie") kidnaps Homer and steals an Inanimate Carbon Rod to deliver to Lord Vortech. Mr. Burns' office is then destroyed by a huge mech operated by The Joker.

The design and folly of Springfield Nuclear Power Plant is often rumored to be based on the real life Trojan Nuclear Power Plant near Matt Groening's home town of Portland, Oregon, or the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington. However, Antonia Coffman, Groening's publicist, has said that the Springfield plant's design is generic and that "the Springfield Nuclear Power plant was not based on the Trojan Plant or any other power plant in the country."[16] Trojan Nuclear Power Plant opened in 1976 and was infamous for its poor construction and maintenance, resulting in steam generator leaks which ultimately caused the plant to close in 1993 (although other plants replaced theirs). The cooling tower of the Trojan nuclear power plant was finally demolished on May 21, 2006.

A cawing crow is heard in nearly every establishing shot of the power plant; this is parodied in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore", in which a cow can be heard mooing during an outside shot of the India based power plant.

The SNPP maintains a map of the United States indicating the status of all of the various nuclear facilities. Homer's job includes replacing most of the burnt out lightbulbs on the map.

The wall that Homer faces in his work station changes between episodes. In some episodes the wall is a window showing reactor piping; in others it is a map of nuclear sites around the country, a solid wall, or a wall with a plaque saying "Don't forget: you're here forever" that has been rearranged by Homer to say "Do it for her" with pictures of Maggie.

The plant's condition has actually deteriorated over the last few years. In one early episode, Smithers estimates that it would cost $56 million to bring the plant up to code, while in a later episode the new German owners of the plant discover that the cost has soared to $100 million.

There are three possible years in which the nuclear plant opened (1968, 1974, 1979) In 1968, It was mentioned in the Blunder Years that the plant was "new" when Homer, Lenny, Carl, and Moe were only twelve. In To Cur With Love, Homer is twelve when the plant is officially opened. In 1974, The school counselor says that a nuclear power plant being constructed outside of the city was opening soon, and offered Homer a pamphlet for to-be-employees there. In 1979, Homer, as an adult, says he should apply at the nuclear power plant. Although never clearly stated, it is implied that the nuclear plant was recently built and opened.

According to a commentary on a Simpsons' DVD, it's stated that there is an actual Homer Simpson working in a nuclear power plant. It is not sure if this is true since there have been no other sources stating this.

There is a real nuclear facility near Preston, United Kingdom called Springfield's nuclear fuel production facility.

An all-ages music venue in Augusta, Georgia bears the name "Sector 7G."

Continuity Series Goof: In The Blunder Years, the nuclear power plant had opened when Homer, Lenny and Carl were 10. However in The Way We Was, Homer is in his teens when the power plant opened. And in "Homer's Enemy, Lenny says that Homer got the job when he came the day the nuclear power plant opened.

Sector 7G has the same alphanumeric code as the production code of season 1, which was 7GXX.